Work Text:
The sun is blazing down on the paddock when Lando makes his way through the paddock, absentmindedly smoothing down his blue photographer's vest as he goes, weaving around brightly coloured fans.
It's his first Grand Prix hes visited in person, George, the guy who was usually on Formula 1 coverage apparently called in sick with the flu the night before, and while Lando felt bad for the guy, he can't help the part of him ecstatic at the opportunity. Lando had been practically begging to be moved over to motorsports since he got hired as a sports photographer three years prior, and this was his only breakthrough thus far.
He'd heard through the grapevine that George was looking into a switch into the fashion column, tired of the constant travel of the F1 circus, and Lando intended to grab onto the potential open spot with both hands. Ergo, he couldn't fuck this up.
He was jostled on both sides as he settled into place opposite the pit lane, grumbling slightly as he shifted his bag away from offending elbows. From here, he had an almost clear shot of the bustling orange of the McLaren garage, the grating sound of electric tools echoed by the teams lining the pits.
Lando pursed his lips slightly as he raised his camera up, fiddling around with the settings as he snapped a few test shots, before settling back and taking a few more in quick succession, before moving further along, getting a few reasonable shots of the Mercedes and Racing Bulls before floating back around to McLaren. He'd managed to get across the pit lane for a better view about 20 minutes before quali, meaning he'd managed some pretty solid shots of the final stages of the car in the garage, as well as some of the drivers that his boss would probably be pretty stoked about.
The rest of the weekend passed in similar fashion, Lando living in amongst the exited buzzing of the paddock, camera practically glued up by his face.
It was only after the weekend was over, when he was sat at his desk and scrutinising some of the shots he'd filed away after his initial cursory review of the lot, that he started noticing a pattern in some of his McLaren garage shots.
Lando squinted at his computer as he flicked through some of the candid shots, eyes frantically searching as he scanned the mechanics in the garage.
"Hey, Alex" he called over the top of the cubicle, causing Alex to pop his head over the top of the divider, eyebrows raised in question. Lando waved him over "come take a look at this".
Alex squinted at him before shrugging an ok and shuffling around the wall and leaning over Lando's shoulder. "What's up?"
"Take a look at this" lando murmured as he flicked back through the cameras. He reached up and tapped the screen with his finger "see this guy, with the hair", he pointed out a mechanic who Lando had apparently caught at the wrong time, very obviously staring right down the lens of the camera, messing up what would have otherwise been a perfectly good photo.
Behind him, Alex snorted at his misfortune, "you caught the guy at a bad time, so what? happens to the best of us, there will be other good photos"
"That's the thing!" Lando exclaimed, before flipping further through the garage shots, where the same guy appeared staring directly down the camera, even in the closer shots, every other photo had the same guy, just looking straight down the lens "he's fricken everywhere" he exclaimed.
Alex snorted at Lando's growing annoyance as he flipped through photo after photo, clapping him on the shoulder "good luck with that", he called over his shoulder, before disappearing back behind his desk.
Lando let out another annoyed huff, glaring at the papaya mechanic with his stupid swoopy hair as he slowly separated the photos out of the mix, placing them in a file he maliciously titled with two eye emojis before carrying on with work. Finding some shots of the Mercedes garage with no staring mechanics to submit for the article, settling into his editing process with a simmering ire sitting in his stomach, directed towards that random mechanic who ruined his photos.
___________________
The next time he attended a race was about four months later, the grapevine actually reporting some correct information for once, Lando called up for motorsports coverage when George put in a bid for a position covering the fashion sector. Lando accepted the new offer almost immediately, happy that his boss had clearly been satisfied at the photos he'd taken, despite some of the ruined shots.
He'd been wandering through the paddock again, slipping through crowds of people as he made his way down to the pit lane, drifting between a few garages, camera held securely in his hands. When he got back to McLaren, he squinted through the crowd of people bustling around the garage, finally satisfied he couldn't see the guy who had ruined his other photos, he lifted up the camera, zooming in on the cars, getting some more candids of the mechanics, turning around and taking some more photos of the people sat at the pit wall, before wandering back down the pit lane to get a few more.
Two days later, when Lando slipped into his seat with a huff, he was pretty satisfied that he'd managed to get some pretty good shots this time. Booting up his computer, he opened up the files, navigating to the file named "MCL" and started flicking back through, before freezing.
"Are you kidding me right now", he muttered at his screen, staring disbelievingly at the guy with the hair staring directly down the camera, making direct eye contact with Lando through the screen, as if mocking him.
He slowly flicked through more, jaw tightening more and more in annoyance as the same guy kept popping up, face turned directly towards the lens like Lando was some kind of McLaren mechanic attracting beacon. Even in one general shot of the pit lane setting up before lights out, all kinds of team personnel milling around, there was that same guy. Just. Looking.
Lando let out an annoyed huff, letting his forehead drop down dramatically onto the desk with a pathetic thump, before sitting back up and methodically filing every single photo of the guy into the eyes folder.
The next triple header came and went, and so did the photos. It was getting to the point where Lando was starting to expect the guy, dark eyes and fluffy hair assaulting his lens week after week.
The news had spread around the office by now, Lando's whining to Alex permeating around their section, each Monday morning bringing about a congregation of coworkers who scrutinised Lando's photos like some kind of messed up game of 'Wheres Wally'. At this point, the mechanic's face was practically seared into the backs of Lando's eyelids.
He was starting to get weird looks when he was in the paddock too, with the way he was staring around himself while he walked around, trying to make sure this guy wasn't in the photos, even though he inevitably would make it in. Because even though Lando had seen this guy more than his own goddamn family in the last couple months, he had yet to actually spot him in the paddock, which made the whole situation all the more ridiculous, in Lando's opinion at least.
Lando started thinking that there was some way this guy was doing it on purpose, that this guy was dedicated enough to ruining Lando's photos that he was intentionally seeking out Lando's camera while simultaneously hiding from him. When he voiced his theory to Alex, he'd just gently asked if Lando had been getting enough sleep, which didn't really make him feel better.
Lando was almost thankful for the pause during the summer break, getting reprieve from him would surely let Lando get back into the rhythm of things.
Which is why when he turned around after picking up his usual order from the local bakery (a latte and a fresh croissant), he definitely wasn't prepared to walk straight into the same damn guy from the photos in the middle of the street , almost upending his coffee all over the guy.
The guy started apologising for walking into Lando, clearly making to move around him when Lando saw red.
"Oh my god" he said, staring down the guy "it's you" he accused.
The guy froze, eyes wide as he stared back at Lando. They stared at each other for a moment too long, Lando finally, finally looking back at the person who had been haunting his camera lens for months.
'Gotcha' Lando thought.
"Excuse me?" the guy responded, affronted, interrupting Lando from his mental celebrations at catching the guy who had been plaguing his files like some kind of bright orange spectre for the better part of the last year.
"You're the guy who keeps ruining my goddamn photos" Lando accused again, lifting up his free hand to poke his finger into the guys chest. Annoyingly for Lando, the guy was slightly taller than him, meaning his accusation lost all of its intimidation factor as he stared up at the guy, who looked increasingly bewildered.
"you work at McLaren right? Mechanic for the F1 cars?" Lando continued, belatedly realising that maybe he'd gotten it wrong and he was now yelling at a stranger undeservedly. The guy, now looking quite creeped out nodded slowly. Lando internally relaxed, sure now that he had his culprit.
"How the fuck do you know that?" came the response, still sounding confused, and now also quite alarmed.
Lando poked his finger further into the guy's chest "you keep ruining my photos! are you looking into the lens on purpose?" He glared at the guy, whose eyes had gone wide, a light pink flush taking over the tops of his cheeks.
"Mate, I don't know what you're talking about" Came the response, the guy rocking back on his heels to get away from Lando's poking finger, looking away from him, almost guiltily, for a moment.
"Are you serious?" Lando's voice landed flat in-between them.
The guy just nodded his head emphatically, his swoop of hair bobbing with his head, Lando had the sudden strange urge to pat it back down, before he blinked himself out of it.
He grabbed the guys hand, ignoring the warmth of it against his own, dragging him to one of the small tables populating the street outside the cafe before sitting himself down opposite and pulling his laptop out of his work bag.
The guy started edging to the side of his seat, as if he was edging to make a break for it, Lando glared at him over his screen until he stopped, his expression reading as resigned.
Lando navigated to the eyes file, opening up the first photo before spinning the laptop around to show the guy.
"Is this you?" he asked, squinting at him.
The guy - maybe Lando should try to learn his name at some point, calling him 'the guy' was starting to get annoying - nodded minutely, looking quite trapped where he was sat on the small metal cafe chair.
Lando reached a hand around his computer, slowly flicking through the rather large collection of photo's that this guy had managed to ruin, watching as the guy's face flicked from confusion to alarm to sheepishness as Lando kept flicking through the images, the blush just below his eyes getting deeper and deeper.
"See!" lando exclaimed, almost hysterically "you're everywhere", he'd only managed about halfway through the photos before he gave up, staring expectantly at the guy across the table.
The guy opened his mouth and closed it a couple times, eyes flicking between Lando and the photos still open on his laptop.
"Sorry?" he tried, looking quite stricken at the evidence Lando had planted in his lap.
"Sorry" Lando echoed, flatly "you've haunted my photos for months and all you have to say is sorry"
The guy grimaced, "Look-" he hesitated.
"Lando" he offered.
"Look, Lando-" He hesitated again "I didn't realise I was doing… that, genuinely, I'm sorry", his eyes flickered slightly away from Lando for a moment.
And the guy looked so sincere, chewing on his lip lightly as he looked at Lando from across the rickety table.
Lando bit his lip, eyeing the guy suspicioiusly, narrowing his eyes performatively before swallowing his pride "okay-" he raised an eyebrow at the guy expectantly.
"Oscar" came the quick response.
"Oscar" Lando let it roll around his mouth for a second, the name suited him, he thought absentmindedly. "I believe you" he said carefully, before snapping his laptop shut and sliding it back into his bag.
The guy - Oscar - blinked "that's it?" he asked
Lando zipped his bag shut, "that's it" he repeated, grinning at Oscar before he narrowed his eyes again, lifting up his finger to point straight at Oscar again.
"But if I see one more photo with you staring me or my camera down, it won't be" He meant it to come out threateningly, but he could see the corner of Oscar's mouth twitch in amusement.
"Oh I'm sure" Oscar nodded emphatically at him.
Lando squinted at him, unsure if he was being sarcastic or not.
"Okay" Lando said, slowly.
"Okay" Oscar nodded again, small smile creeping up one side of his face.
"Okay" Lando repeated again, before turning away and walking off, leaving Oscar sitting at the small cafe table.
___________________
The first race after the break brought back the congregation of coworkers, gathering around Lando's desk as he set up the most recent race photos. Taking a breath, he started flicking through the McLaren photos, squinting at the papaya as he tried to find Oscar. To his surprise, the first batch of photos remained starkly Oscar-less, and so did the second, and then he reached the end, finger tapping uselessly at the right arrow button, miraculously free of any Oscar-related staring.
He let out a disbelieving laugh as his coworkers grumbled about lost bets and dispersed around him, dissolving back into their parts of the office. To double check, he flicked through the other photos, with zero trace of Oscar. The photos were all exactly as he'd planned them.
Technically perfect.
He bit his lip slowly as he pulled up some of the best one, an uncomfortable feeling pooling at the bottom of his stomach. Surely Oscar had just missed this race, or he was doing other things while Lando was flitting around the cars with his camera. Mechanics get busy on race weekends. This was what he wanted when he confronted Oscar at the cafe, right?
He asked for this.
So why did it feel like something was missing?
___________________
The next race found Lando staring through the viewfinder as he pointed his lens towards the McLaren garage, eyes widening as he caught sight of a familiar face, for the first time not caught in still image or unwillingly captured at a local cafe.
He watched Oscar through the viewfinder for a moment before Oscar's head snapped up, resuming its familiar position of staring directly down Lando's camera. Lando dropped his Camera for a moment, removing the barrier between them, staring Oscar down, brows raised. A taste of his own medicine, Lando thought.
Oscar caught his gaze from across the pit lane, eyes widening slightly in recognition before he snapped his head back around to the car, cheeks going pink as he fiddled with something hidden from Lando's view. One of the other mechanics gave Oscar a weird look at his sudden movement, scanning outside the garage, eyes glazing over Lando as he lifted the camera back up to his face.
Lando kept watching though the viewfinder as the other mechanic said something to Oscar, who quickly shook his head, cheeks turning even pinker as he continued to stare at a fixed spot on the body of the car.
Lando bit his lip, shifting slightly away, out of view of Oscar, to get a better view of the car, definitely not to make Oscar forget he was there and maybe look back at him. To Lando's dismay, Oscar's head remained firmly down the entire time he was sat in the pit lane, always staring very staunchly in any direction that wasn't Lando.
The next Monday found Lando back at work, his head dropped down onto his desk again. Another batch of photos with one distinctive feature missing set up in front of him.
Alex popped his head over the divider "Is the guy back?" he asked, knowingly
Lando didn't lift is head from the desk. "No, the opposite" , he lamented, his voice muffled by the desk.
Alex made a questioning sound, Lando just groaned into the desk in response, pitifully cursing his life. "He's not there" he spoke into the desk.
Alex let out a confused laugh "Isn't that what you wanted?"
Lando just pressed his forehead further into the wood, groaning.
___________________
Two weeks after that, Lando found himself hovering outside the McLaren garage, camera clutched in one hand, the other hand twisting his photographers vest.
It was after the race, so mechanics and engineers were swarming around the place, packing down the garage. Lando hovered around awkwardly until one of the mechanics caught sight of him, the same one Lando saw talking to Oscar the other week.
He raised his eyebrow at him, shifting closer "are you looking for something?", he assessed Lando, taking in his media vest with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh yeah, I'm looking for Oscar" It comes out more as a question, fingers still twisting around the vest.
The mechanic squints at him for a moment before his eyes widened in recognition "oh! you're Oscar's photographer"
Lando blinked, a jolt rushing through him at the realisation of being recognised as Oscar's anything. "yes?" he squeaked out.
The mechanic grinned at him before instructing him to wait and disappearing into the depths of the garage, emerging moments later with an exhausted looking Oscar trailing behind him.
When Oscar caught sight of Lando waiting for him, his eyes went wide, turning to stare at his friend with an intense look in his eye that was promptly ignored.
The other mechanic grabbed Oscar by the arms and dragged him around until he was stood in front of Lando, grinning between them "right! I'll be off then" he announced cheerfully, ignoring Oscar's attempt to stop him and disappearing back into the sea of papaya behind them.
Oscar looked helplessly between the garage and Lando before pointing back towards the paddock "there will be some benches over there if you want to-" he trailed off, avoiding eye contact with Lando like he was going to bite him if he looked or something.
Lando just hummed slightly, motioning for Oscar to lead.
They both set off towards the benches, sitting down opposite each other again.
Lando was about to start speaking when Oscar suddenly started rambling.
"Sorry if I ruined more of your photos" He started,
Lando tried to open his mouth to respond before Oscar interrupted him again.
"I can try to make it up to you if I did" he paused "I'm not really sure how, but I can try to figure something out?" he rushed out, breathless.
"Oscar!" Lando interrupted, "you haven't ruined any photos"
Oscar opened his mouth, closed it again "what? then why are you-" he gestured around them.
Lando frowned at him, glaring at the table like it would take accountability for what he would say next, before muttering "I missed seeing you in the photos".
Oscar stared at him, eyes wide "what?"
"I said I missed seeing you in the photos" Lando repeated, louder this time.
Oscar stared at him.
He stared at Oscar.
"what?" Oscar said again.
Lando put his head in his hands " I know I made like a huge deal about it and I fully cornered you in the middle of the street-" he was rambling now "-which I am really sorry about by the way-"
Oscar was still staring, his expression the same as the one practically seared into Lando's brain.
"-But then you stopped showing up in the photos and I missed it, missed seeing you" Lando's voice faded out, staring at the table, before lifting his head slightly to look up at Oscar.
They sat in silence for a moment after Lando finished his little spiel, before Oscar suddenly bent over the table, shoulders shaking. It took another moment before Lando realised that he was laughing.
"Oscar-" Lando tried to get his attention, trying to ignore the twitch of his own lips in response to Oscar's outburst.
Oscar kept laughing, and soon, Lando was joining him, dissolving into helpless giggles as the absurdity of the whole saga hit them both.
when they finally calmed down Oscar was looking at him with an incredibly fond look that made Lando want to squirm away from his gaze, "you missed me" he repeated.
Lando kicked him under the table "shut up".
"Here I was thinking I'd unknowingly messed up more of your photos, but no, you missed me" Oscar continued, biting back a grin.
"Well maybe I don't anymore" Lando muttered mutinously at the table, before raising an eyebrow at Oscar "unknowingly?"
Oscar flushed slightly.
"Oh my god! I knew you knew you were looking!"
"I didn't know you were taking photos of it!"
Lando sputtered "I was holding a camera! And you were so obvious about it"
Oscar, somehow flushed darker, his blush reaching further down his cheeks. he shrugged lightly "maybe you're just noticeable"
Lando was shocked into silence, mouth opening and closing in shock. He could feel his ears turning red.
"Don't- you can't-" he sputtered, indignantly, as Oscar fought back a smile.
Lando kicked his leg lightly under the table again. Before grabbing a notebook from under the table and scribbling his number on it, ripping out the page and shoving it in Oscar's direction.
"If you want the rest of the photos, text me"
And with that, Lando stood up, grabbing his stuff and, once again, leaving Oscar at the table, this time holding his number.
Lando bit back a grin of his own as he heard a strangled sounding "there's more?" echo from behind him.